Vier letzte Lieder Ann-Christine Larsson, Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra & Joachim Gustafsson

• Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949): Vier letzte Lieder:
• 1Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder: I. Frühling03:05
• 2Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder: II. September04:07
• 3Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder: III. Beim schlafengehen04:51
• 4Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder: IV. Im Abendrot06:34
• Total Runtime18:37

Info for Vier letzte Lieder

The "Four Last Songs" by Richard Strauss are considered his artistic legacy. Originally, Strauss did not intend them as a cycle and they were not composed in the order in which they are performed today. The composer did not live to see the premiere. Florian Heurich spoke with soprano Anja Harteros about the "Four Last Songs".

The wisdom of age and the serenity of a person at peace with himself speak from the "Four Last Songs". But also a farewell mood and the awareness that everything in this world is finite. After the end of the Second World War, Richard Strauss lived in Switzerland for several years. Here he writes the four songs. It is said that his son Franz advised him to use these compositions to help himself get over the difficult circumstances of life in the post-war period.

Ann-Christine Larsson, soprano
Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra
Joachim Gustafsson, conductor

Ann-Christine Larsson
is an alumnus of Sweden’s Royal College of Music and the recipient of the Jenny Lind Scholarship 1986/87, which involved a tour in Sweden and in the United States. During this period, she was also active at the Drottningholm Palace Theatre, in parts such as Amore in Orpheus and Eurydice (Gluck) and Second Boy in The Magic Flute, under the baton of Arnold Östman. The soprano graduated in 1992 with a major in opera singing, taught by her close friend, the distinguished Kerstin Meyer. Another important source of inspiration was the renowned Nicolai Gedda, with whom she studied for the first years of her career. Later, she studied under Kammersängerin Helen Donath. In 1993, Gian-Carlo Menotti offered Larsson the part of Anne Truelove in The Rake’s Progress for the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. This was followed by Peter Grimes at Theatre de La Monnaie in Belgium. In Sweden, she debuted at Folkoperan in 1995 as Desdemona (Otello) and ever since, she’s made regular guest appearances there in roles such as Donna Anna, Micaela, Leila, and Tosca.

Her German debut came in 1997 as a member of the Bonn Opera House ensemble, singing roles such as Micaela, Ilia, Susanna, Musetta, Nanetta, Ännchen, Marzelline, and Woglinde. Ann-Christine Larsson remained at Bonn until 2002, and she continues to appear there regularly as a guest artist. After returning to Sweden, she sang Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Gothenburg Opera and also debuted as Konstanze in Die Entfürhung aus dem Serail. Donna Anna is a role she has excelled at both at the Royal Swedish Opera and the Royal Danish Opera, and she pulled off a spectacular last-minute substitution in the starring role of Isabella at the world premiere of the contemporary Swedish opera Sömnkliniken (“The Insomnia Clinic”) by Carl Unander-Scharin. Other notable performances are the titular role in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen at Bergen National Opera and The Wedding of Figaro, as the Countess, at the Gothenburg Opera in 2014, and at Norrlandsoperan in 2015. Ann-Christine Larssson’s extensive repertoire has led to exciting collaborations such as Ein Deutsches Requiem with Okku Kamu and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Paavo Järvi and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Larsson sang the same Mahler piece with the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Enrique Diemecke and in a guest appearance with Michael Francis and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra at the Stockholm Concert Hall in February 2016.

One of Ann-Christine Larsson’s favorite works is Vier letzte Lieder by Strauss, which is included on this album in a live recording with the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Joachim Gustafsson, at the Linköping Concert Hall in 2022.

Booklet for Vier letzte Lieder